Mobile Wallets

Visa Inc. announced early Tuesday it will launch a cross-border payments service that will rely on stablecoins to fund transfers. The service, meant ultimately as an improvement on existing transfers that require users to commit capital in advance, will run on the payments company’s Visa Direct real-time payments rails. It …

The international money-transfer system Swift said it plans to add what it calls a “blockchain-based shared ledger” to its technology stack in an effort to process instant cross-border transactions. Some 34 financial institutions from 16 countries are advising Swift on the project. The payments platform Lightspeed Commerce introduced Showroom, a service that provides merchants …

As the popularity of digital payments increases, more businesses and organizations are looking to revamp their strategies to keep up with the trend, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ 2025 Digital Payments Survey. Among the businesses and organizations surveyed for the triennial study, 76% expect to update their payments …

Fiserv Inc. said it has acquired Smith Consulting Group, a Lake Mary, Fla.-based advisory service for community banks and credit unions. Terms were not disclosed. Reverb, a marketplace for musicians, has introduced its Reverb Wallet, which allows sellers to use marketplace earnings to buy new musical gear. The wallet was developed …

Citigroup Inc. is partnering with Dandelion Payments Inc., a real-time, cross-border payments network, to enable near-instant, full-value cross-border payments into digital wallets globally. Dandelion will integrate Citi’s WorldLink Payment Services into its digital-wallet network to facilitate the payments. The service will initially launch in the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Colombia. …

Consumer-advocacy organization Consumer Reports on Tuesday issued its “Fairness By Design Playbook” with expectations it can help fintechs build consumer trust. The new guide starts with the Consumer Reports thesis that what it calls fair design is not just beneficial to consumers, but can help organizations create sustainable financial products …

Mastercard Inc. is working with Alipay+, Ant International’s wallet, to introduce near-field communication capability for overseas transactions on Kakao Pay, a mobile wallet in South Korea. In related news, Mastercard launched its Global Reach Partner Program, aimed at easing expansion into new markets for merchants through consulting and advice. Paga Group, an African …

Early Warning Services LLC has for several years now been defending its popular Zelle payments service against allegations that its users suffer excessive losses to scams and fraud. The issue reached a crescendo three years ago with criticism from U.S. Senators about the peer-to-peer payments service’s fraud rates. With the …

PayPal Holdings Inc. and Google Inc. have partnered to leverage their artificial intelligence capabilities in an effort to create what they see as more personalized shopping and payment experiences across their platforms and devices for consumers and merchants.  The deal, announced late Wednesday, will bring together the two companies’ “global …

MoneyGram International Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a mobile app featuring a U.S. dollar-backed stored-value account that will work with stablecoins as well as fiat currencies. The move, which comes as interest in stablecoins heats up in the mainstream payments market, represents a sweeping update of the remittance company’s mobile technology and …